InflationRank is a local cost-of-living dashboard. It reports inflation, housing prices, rents, household income, and unemployment for any U.S. ZIP code, county, or metro area, drawing on data published by U.S. federal statistical agencies and established public-research providers. The list below identifies the organizations whose data powers the dashboard.
One of the twelve regional Federal Reserve banks. Aggregates and publishes hundreds of thousands of national and regional economic time series, including consumer prices, mortgage rates, federal interest rates, gasoline prices, and labor market indicators. Its data feeds many of InflationRank's headline figures.
The principal U.S. agency for labor and price data, operating within the Department of Labor. It produces the Consumer Price Index — the official measure of U.S. inflation — and publishes unemployment rates at national, state, metropolitan, and county levels. Its statistics are the canonical reference cited by the Federal Reserve, the financial press, and academic researchers.
The federal agency responsible for the country's official population and economic counts, operating within the Department of Commerce. Beyond the decennial census, it conducts continuous surveys that produce annual estimates of median home values, gross rent, household income, and population characteristics at the ZIP code, county, and state levels.
Publishes monthly housing-market indices that measure typical home values and asking rents across U.S. metropolitan areas, ZIP codes, and states. Widely cited by economists, journalists, and policy researchers as a near-real-time complement to the federal housing statistics, which lag by roughly eighteen months.
Maintains the public geographic boundary data used to associate a user's location with the appropriate statistical region — translating coordinates and ZIP codes into the county and Census-region identifiers required by the federal data sources above.
A short description of each indicator on the dashboard and why it matters for cost of living.
The year-over-year change in a representative basket of goods and services — the standard measure of how fast prices are rising. The Federal Reserve targets 2 percent annual inflation as a healthy rate. InflationRank shows the figure for the user's metropolitan area or Census region when available, alongside the U.S. national rate.
The U.S. weekly average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate home loan, the most common mortgage product. Mortgage rates drive housing affordability and household debt costs, and tend to move with the federal funds rate.
The interest rate target set by the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee. The single most-watched lever in U.S. monetary policy: when it rises, borrowing costs across the economy rise with it; when it falls, the opposite.
The share of the local labor force actively looking for work but unable to find it. InflationRank prefers the county-level rate when available, falling back to the state rate and then the U.S. rate. A figure below four percent typically indicates a tight labor market.
The weekly retail average for regular-grade gasoline. Reported at the regional level — five U.S. petroleum districts cover the country — alongside the national average.
The typical home price for a given location, drawn from monthly housing-market indices. Updated more frequently than the annual federal estimates and tracking close to current market reality.
The typical asking rent in a given location, also updated monthly from housing-market indices. Useful as a more current view than the federal annual rent estimates, which can lag actual market movement by more than a year.
The income of the household at the middle of the local distribution — half of households earn more, half earn less. The reference point for "what does an average family earn here" and the denominator for affordability metrics like rent burden.
InflationRank's inflation figures are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal agency that publishes the Consumer Price Index. The dashboard shows the most location-specific figure available — metropolitan-area or Census-region inflation when published, with the national rate alongside for comparison.
It depends on the indicator. Mortgage rates and gasoline prices update weekly, the consumer price index and unemployment rate update monthly, the federal funds rate updates after each Federal Reserve policy meeting, and housing-market indices update monthly. Household-level Census estimates are annual and typically lag by about eighteen months.
Yes. Enter a ZIP code on the main dashboard and the housing, rent, and income figures will refresh to that ZIP's specific values when published data is available. For metrics that aren't published at the ZIP level — inflation, for example — the dashboard shows the smallest geography that does publish, falling back from metropolitan area to Census region to national average as needed.
The dashboard always shows the most-detailed geography that has data for the requested figure. Housing values, rent, and household income can resolve down to the ZIP-code level. Unemployment resolves to the county level. Inflation resolves to the metropolitan area or Census region, since the federal government does not publish a state- or ZIP-level Consumer Price Index.
Every figure on the dashboard is drawn from a public statistical source — the same agencies cited by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, leading news organizations, and academic researchers. Each card on the dashboard identifies which source produced its current value, so any number can be independently verified.
No. InflationRank summarizes published statistical data for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, mortgage, real-estate, tax, or any other form of professional advice. Consult a qualified professional for personal financial decisions.